Tomcat 7 "SEVERE: A child container failed during start"

Question

Basically, I've written a springMVC application (with a relatively shotgun my way first-timer approach with regards to Spring). The project works fine on Tomcat 6. My Tomcat server doesn't start and throws the following exception:

Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: /usr/bin/jdk1.7.0_03/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/bin/jdk1.7.0_03/jre/lib/amd64:/usr/bin/jdk1.7.0_03/jre/../lib/amd64:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/../lib/amd64:/usr/java/packages/lib/amd64:/usr/lib64:/lib64:/lib:/usr/lib
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:spring-security-integration' did not find a matching property.
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:Spring3Hibernate' did not find a matching property.
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:assessment' did not find a matching property.
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 654 ms
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.26
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:01 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring root WebApplicationContext
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader - Root WebApplicationContext: initialization started
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Refreshing Root WebApplicationContext: startup date [Sun Apr 29 15:41:01 BST 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader - Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/root-context.xml]
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory - Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@3dd5df15: defining beans []; root of factory hierarchy
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader - Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 226 ms
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:01 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'appServlet'
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - FrameworkServlet 'appServlet': initialization started
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Refreshing WebApplicationContext for namespace 'appServlet-servlet': startup date [Sun Apr 29 15:41:01 BST 2012]; parent: Root WebApplicationContext
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader - Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml]
INFO : org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner - JSR-330 'javax.inject.Named' annotation found and supported for component scanning
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor - JSR-330 'javax.inject.Inject' annotation found and supported for autowiring
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory - Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@cf10596: defining beans [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping#0,org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.MappedInterceptor#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.ResponseStatusExceptionResolver#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.DefaultHandlerExceptionResolver#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.HttpRequestHandlerAdapter,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter,org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver#0,dataSource,sessionFactory,homeController,userManagementController,userService,userDao,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalPersistenceAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ContentNegotiatingViewResolver#0,org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor$ImportAwareBeanPostProcessor#0]; parent: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@3dd5df15
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Mapped "{[/],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public java.lang.String org.assessme.com.controller.HomeController.home(java.util.Locale,org.springframework.ui.Model)
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Mapped "{[/userManagement/],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public java.lang.Object org.assessme.com.controller.UserManagementController.home(java.util.Locale,org.springframework.ui.Model)
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Mapped "{[/userManagement/getUser],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public org.assessme.com.entity.User org.assessme.com.controller.UserManagementController.data(java.util.Locale,org.springframework.ui.Model)
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping - Mapped URL path [/resources/**] onto handler 'org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler#0'
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - FrameworkServlet 'appServlet': initialization completed in 1846 ms
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:03 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase startInternal
SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/Spring3Hibernate]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:252)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:111)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1128)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:782)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1566)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1556)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/Spring3Hibernate]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 60
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.Constant.readConstant(Constant.java:131)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ConstantPool.<init>(ConstantPool.java:60)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readConstantPool(ClassParser.java:209)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2032)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:1923)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1891)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1877)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1270)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:855)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:345)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5161)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 7 more

I'm really not sure what this is referring to, I'm more than happy to show any code etc but I don't really know what it's referring to. Below is my pom.xml just in case that might be of relevance.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>org.assessme</groupId>
    <artifactId>com</artifactId>
    <name>assessme</name>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>1.0.0-BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <properties>
        <java-version>1.6</java-version>
        <org.springframework-version>3.1.0.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>
        <org.aspectj-version>1.6.9</org.aspectj-version>
        <org.slf4j-version>1.5.10</org.slf4j-version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- Spring -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
            <exclusions>

                <!-- Exclude Commons Logging in favor of SLF4j -->
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- AspectJ -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Logging -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.15</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
                    <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jms</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.sun.jdmk</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jmxtools</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.sun.jmx</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jmxri</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- @Inject -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Servlet -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Persistence -->

        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
            <version>1.4</version>
        </dependency>


        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>


        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.6-Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-annotations</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.6-Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javassist</groupId>
            <artifactId>javassist</artifactId>
            <version>3.11.0.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>5.1.18</version>
        </dependency>


        <!-- Jackson JSON Mapper -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
            <version>1.9.5</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Test -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.7</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.9</version>
                <configuration>
                    <additionalProjectnatures>
                        <projectnature>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springnature</projectnature>
                    </additionalProjectnatures>
                    <additionalBuildcommands>
                        <buildcommand>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springbuilder</buildcommand>
                    </additionalBuildcommands>
                    <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                    <downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                    <compilerArgument>-Xlint:all</compilerArgument>
                    <showWarnings>true</showWarnings>
                    <showDeprecation>true</showDeprecation>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.2.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <mainClass>org.test.int1.Main</mainClass>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Does anyone have any ideas?

Inflexed

Answer 1

When a servlet 3.0 application starts the container has to scan all the classes for annotations (unless metadata-complete=true). Tomcat uses a fork (no additions, just unused code removed) of Apache Commons BCEL to do this scanning. The web app is failing to start because BCEL has come across something it doesn't understand.

If the applications runs fine on Tomcat 6, adding metadata-complete="true" in your web.xml or declaring your application as a 2.5 application in web.xml will stop the annotation scanning.

At the moment, this looks like a problem in the class being scanned. However, until we know which class is causing the problem and take a closer look we won't know. I'll need to modify Tomcat to log a more useful error message that names the class in question. You can follow progress on this point at: https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=53161

Ashliashlie

I am using Tomcat 9 but I still receive this error, I have tried your recommenced fixes but it did not work, is there anything else I can try? – Zeitler

Same as above. Still seeing this error with Tomcat 9. But I have two questions: [1] how to add metadata-complete = "true" in web.xml -- is that a param name and value pair for the servlet? and [2] Even if this were to work with web.xml, how can one address this for a Maven project? I don't have any web.xml over there. – Toxin

Answer 2

you can fix it with:

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
    <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
    <version>${servlet-api-version}</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

---

provided solves this problem

Gatling

For me, it had always worked without "provided". Today, suddenly it stopped working, and I came across this solution, and surprisingly, it works. I am still trying to figure out whats going on. – Kibbutz

For me, it had always worked with (yes with) "provided". Today, suddenly it stopped working. I'm on Tomcat 7.0.52 and I cannot see any class of mine causing trouble. I'm running it from Maven with: mvn clean install tomcat7:run -DskipTests – Milieu

By manually deploying on Tomcat with a copy of the .war archive, I could see the faulty class of mine. Solved. – Milieu

Downvoted bc, first, scope=provided doesn't fix the problem. Second, you haven't explained why this is supposed to work. Please don't just copy and paste random snippets of code with no explanation. – Departed

@erhun - It helped me so I think it's warranted. – Moffat

@Moffat That doesn't mean the answer is actually helpful. The answer is just regurgitating code without an explanation, hardly a good teaching moment. – Correspondence

upvote, a. it fixed the problem, b provided is well explained on the mvn official web site – Petrillo

I faced the same problem. I hadn't included any servlet-api via my POM. However upon looking deeply the logs on the console were still showing that WEB-INF was still having this included somehow. To overcome this adding the above mentioned dependency specifically adding "provided" helped me out. – Tauto

I tried this but it didnt help me at all. Not sure as to what I'm missing. Any further ideas? Also, how to deal with this problem in case of a non maven project? – Toxin

Answer 3

I recently moved to a new PC all my eclipse projects. I experienced this issue. What i did was:

1. removed the project from tomcat
2. clean tomcat
3. run project in tomcat

Felker

for someone if log contains The main resource set specified [\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\wtpwebapps\projname] is not valid, delete \.metadata folder and restart eclipse setting again – Boycott

Answer 4

If you are thinking that previously it was running properly and now on it started showing the particular issue. Then it is just a hit and trial method to solve. so to get better solution you could follow below steps

1. remove your existing tomcat, if possible
2. remove your project and add your project with a new build
3. add your tomcat server
4. clean the project and refresh the project
5. go for running or debug mode

Howdah

Answer 5

This is usually the problem with web.xml descriptor file. May be you have mixed up the annotations and web.xml servlet description definitions. Please check the console for more information.

Czardom

This is exactly what happened to me! I defined servlets in web.xml and through @WebServlet annotation – Obligato

Answer 6

This is what i have been facing for long time.

This happened last time and figured out that one case could be a bad war deployment, which came after i update library/maven dependencies on pom and re installed it.

SOLUTION:

right click on the server >  remove the war and 
right click on the server again > clean
make sure the maven dependencies are added to deployment assembly
right click on the project > Run As > maven clean
right click on the project again > Run As > maven install 
and finally deploy the project on to the server. This helped me to solve the issue  

Asphyxiant

Answer 7

"there is no problem with tomcat".

I have suffered 4-5 days to resolve the issue (same issue mentioned above). here i was using tomcat 8.5. Finally, the issue got resolved, the issue was with the "Corrupted jar files". You have to delete all your .m2 repository (for me C:\Users\Bandham.m2\repository). den run "mvn clean install" command from your project folder.

happy coding.

Give one UP if it is solved your problem.

Gainor

Answer 8

Don't panic. You have you copied the servlet code? Ok,

@WebServlet("/HelloWord")
public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

You gave the same path @WebServlet("/HelloWord") for both servlets with different names.

If you create a web.xml file, then check the classpath.

Recently

Answer 9

This seems like that the servlet api version which you using is older than the xsd you are using in web.xml eg 3.0

use this one ****http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5"> ****

Audette

Answer 10

I have same problem but in my case By mistake I added a context in server.xml ($Tomcat_Install_Dir/conf/) and doesn't deployed corresponing war in webapps($Tomcat_Install_Dir/webapps). As I removed that context and restarted tomcat it working fine.

Florencio

Answer 11

I have the same problem a few months ago. This solve my problem using Maven instead of a downloaded version of Spring and some changes in the web.xml.

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>SpringWEB1</groupId>
  <artifactId>SpringWEB1</artifactId>
  <version>1</version>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <build>
    <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
        <configuration>
          <warSourceDirectory>WebContent</warSourceDirectory>
          <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <source>1.7</source>
          <target>1.7</target>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.7.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.5</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

Controller.java

package com.jmtm.controller;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@org.springframework.stereotype.Controller
public class Controller {

    @RequestMapping("/hi")
    public ModelAndView hi(){
        return new ModelAndView("Hello", "msg", "Hello user.");
    }

}

spring-servlet.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:c="http://www.springframework.org/schema/c"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
    xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-4.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-4.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-4.1.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.jmtm.controller"></context:component-scan>

    <bean id="viewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix">
            <value>/</value>
        </property>
        <property name="suffix">
            <value>.jsp</value>
        </property>
    </bean>

</beans>

And the most important part of the solution, include the path of the servlet dispatcher (A.K.A. spring-servlet.xml) in the web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="3.0">
  <display-name>SpringWEB1</display-name>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>

  <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring-servlet.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

Something weird happen when I try to solve this. Any downloaded version of Spring from maven.springframework.org/release/org/springframework/spring gives me a lot of problems (Tomcat couldn't find servlet, Spring stops Tomcat, Eclipse couldn't start the server {weird}) so with many problems find many partial solutions. I hope this works for you.

As an extra help, in Eclipse, download from the Eclipse Marketplace the Spring STS Tool for Eclipse, this will help you to create configuration files (servlet.xml) and write code for the servlet in the web.xml file.

Eleni

Answer 12

Tomcat Server fails to start and throws the exception because, inside the section Deployment Descriptor:MyProyect / Servlet Mappings there are mappings that don´t exist. Delete or correct those elements; then starting the server works without problems.

Bridging

Answer 13

for me one case was I just missed to maven update project which caused the same issue

maven update project and try if you see any errors in POM.xml

Rainarainah

Answer 14

This same issue occurred for me and stack trace

SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/XXXXSearch]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.report(FutureTask.java:122)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:192)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1123)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:800)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1559)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1549)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/XXXXSearch]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to complete the scan for annotations for web application [/XXXXSearch]. Possible root causes include a too low setting for -Xss and illegal cyclic inheritance dependencies
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2109)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:1981)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1947)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1932)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1326)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:878)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:369)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5179)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.StackOverflowError
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.populateSCIsForCacheEntry(ContextConfig.java:2269)

In my analysis what i found was, this issue is occurred when illegal cyclic inheritance dependencies caused for Tomcat startup annotation processing.

But my project had lot of dependency JARs, and couldn't found which one is responsible for this.

After trying so many unhappy approaches What i did was , I have updated my tomcat plugin to following and ran the same scenario,

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
    <artifactId>tomcat8-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.0-r1756463</version>
<\plugin>

Then i was able to find which JAR is caused to this issue ,

Aug 23, 2017 2:32:12 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig processAnnotationsJar
SEVERE: Unable to process Jar entry [cryptix/test/TestLOKI91.class] from Jar [jar:file:/C:/Users/Tharinda/.m2/repository/cryptix/cryptix/1.2.2/cryptix-1.2.2.jar!/] for annotations
java.io.EOFException
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.FastDataInputStream.readUnsignedShort(FastDataInputStream.java:120)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readAttributes(ClassParser.java:110)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:94)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:1994)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:1944)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1919)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1880)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1149)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:771)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5120)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1408)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1398)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Then just solving the issue with cryptix-1.2.2.jar solved this problem.

I strongly recommend to move tomcat8-maven-plugin which seems stable and less buggy at the moment.

Deli

Answer 15

As a generic solution, I recommend that you remove all the secondary dependencies and run the application, if it worked, revert back some, and continue doing the same as long as the application starts, in the end, you will be able to identify which dependency caused the issue.

Using the same way, for example, I found that dependencies whose the groupId is: org.apache.axis2 have caused the issue.

 <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.axis2</groupId>
        <artifactId>axis2-transport-local</artifactId>
        <version>1.6.1</version>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.axis2</groupId>
        <artifactId>axis2-transport-http</artifactId>
        <version>1.6.1</version>
 </dependency>

Autolycus

Answer 16

I have faced a similar problem, but it consoles the error like an encoding issue. After changing the IDE encoding, it works fine.

Dor

Answer 17

I have seen this exception while tomcat started and it almost took many hours to figure out the reason. Finally I found out that there were some Spring JARs of a lower version in the lib folder in addition to the Spring jars in the Maven dependencies. The JARs in the lib were automatically added by Eclipse when I added a new Spring Rest controller. I removed those from the lib folder and then let Maven handle the JARs/dependancies and it was fine. Bottom line is if the JARS managed by maven and jars in the WEB-INF/lib causes a classpath issues, you may encounter this error.

Wiatt

Welcome to Stackoverflow and thanks for your given help - but you already noticed that the question is 8 years old ? – Wonderland

Answer 18

I solved a similar problem by updating the web.xml declaration to Servlet 4.0 specification as follows (I use Tomcat 9) :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee
                          http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_4_0.xsd"
      version="4.0"
      metadata-complete="true">
      <!-- ... (your content here) ... -->
</web-app>

You can check which servlet version Tomcat supports by refering to the chart on Tomcat's which version page.

Client

Answer 19

If you added tomcat newly. may be some older version of dependencies may not scan by tomcat. just take latest version and use that in your project.for me i have add new version of javax.annotation and it works

Bestead